THE BEATLES: EIGHT DAYS A WEEK - THE TOURING YEARS

US, 2016, 100 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Ron Howard.

This is a must for those who remember the Beatle years and lived through them, as teenagers enthusiastic or as young adults admiring them and their music. It will be of historical interest for younger audiences and those who have got to know the Beatles’ music.

This is something of a labour of love for director Ron Howard, best known for his range of entertainments and his Oscar for A Beautiful Mind. He has the support of Paul Mc Cartney and Ringo Starr as well as the estates of John Lennon and George Harrison. He has said that he wanted to make this film for his children.

The film includes quite a number of the Beatles songs, not complete but enough to remind audiences of whether they enjoy them or not. They range from the early years, going through the first half of the 1960s, leading to Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club.

The film is particularly well edited, most of the material coming from archival footage, official newsreel coverage, amateur photography, clips from their films A Hard Day’s Night and Help. There are also a number of interesting interviewees including Whoopi Goldberg remembering her going to Shea Stadium, a glimpse of Sigourney Weaver as a young girl and then her comments, Eddie Izzard reminiscing, writer-director Richard Curtis, Richard Lester reminiscing about his directing the films and their performance, Elvis Costello… They performed in 265 concerts in these years.

For those not entirely familiar with the Beatles themselves and their careers, there is enough material taking us back to Liverpool in the 1950s, the young men, the bands, Paul and John meeting and having a rapport because both of them composed songs, the forming of the Beatles, the concerts in Liverpool, the experiences in Hamburg, Ringo Starr joining the four.

The personality of each of the Beatles comes through very strongly throughout the film, John Lennon as the leader, his humour, his singing, his compositions, the offhand remarks, the interviews – and the looking again at the situation of his offhand remark about the Beatles’ popularity being more than Jesus and the American negative reactions and destroying Beatles records. Paul Mc Cartney emerges as a very agreeable man, in his reminiscences as older, in his enjoyment of composing songs, working with John, working with the band, performances, the wonder of travel and the audience reactions. George Harrison is the quietest of the four, more reticent, showing enthusiasm, but interested in music which was to develop after the group broke up. He is frequently seen with a cigarette, so not surprising at his early death. Ringo Starr, looking quite modern in his old age and enthusing in his memories, is full of verve when he is young, the other three admiring his percussion skills, his enthusiasm, performance, the travels.

The film shows their success in Britain, making the initial records, their popularity, and then the unexpected success in the United States. There are glimpses of the manager, Brian Epstein, his work in the record shop in Liverpool, his strategies in promoting the Beatles, his travelling with them, the interviews. Another strong presence in the film is music producer George Martin, who died in 2016, but who was skilful in recognising what the Beatles were doing, even when John was wanting to become more avant-garde in the mid-60s, playing the records backwards and incorporating this into performance. There are various roadies who appear and the journalist Larry Kane, initially reluctant to travel with the Beatles on their American tours but sent by his paper and sending continual reports. He also reminisces from the vantage point of 50 years later.

There are quite a lot of interviews and concerts – and especially the presentation by Ed Sullivan.

While Larry Kane mentions that the Beatles were smoking marijuana and there is a comment that at some stage, in the making of Help, they were stoned, the film keeps a respectable public image for the four, no further investigation of drugs, and certainly no sexual behaviour.

One of the film’s strength is bringing home the buildup of the success of the Beatles during the four years of their touring, not only in the United States where they continually return and perform concerts, sometimes 25 in 30 days, throughout the rest of the world, from Scandinavia to Australia, to Manila, to New Zealand… Capital is quite extraordinary how their reputation flourished in the what seems now limited media of the day. It is also amazing how sports arenas were used to house the many thousands of fans for the concerts. Later there is the tour to Japan where there is far less hullabaloo, more respect, and many inhabitants not wanting them to perform in a venue dedicated to the martial arts.

The performances are very genial, consistent over the period of four years even when they were becoming very weary, feeling pressurised, often with dangers of the pressing crowds. And, speaking of the crowds, there is the continual frenzy, the mass hysteria, the girls screaming, the Beatles shaking their heads as they sang and the corresponding frantic results, the police trying to control, the surging crowds, the expressions of love, the mass response – everywhere and continuous over the four years of tours.

And, of course, the film is asking the question why they should have been so popular, in themselves, Brian Epstein grooming them in suits and ties, the records, the humour, the youthfulness, the continued creativity in songs and performance.

Throughout the film there is a background of what was happening in the 1960s, especially with their going to the United States at the time of the Kennedy assassination. What comes to the fore is the concert in Jacksonville Florida where they refused to play to a segregated audience, 1960s declarations that they played to people.

They proceeded flower power and a lot of the other movements of the mid-1960s – but their subsequent careers are all linked to the development of music from the late 60s, flower power, drugs, the Indian influence…

The film also makes a very good case as to showing the pressures on the Beatles, the strangeness of the experience over such an extent time, the fact that they enjoyed working in the studios best, working off each other and being creative, that they made the decisions together and that by the mid-1960s it was very clear that they should stop their touring, concentrate on their music, which led, as they were turning 30, to their going on to their own individual careers. George Harrison succeeded, Ringo Starr has had a happy life, Paul Mc Cartney has been at the forefront of popular music for more than 50 years – and then there is the tragedy of the assassination of John Lennon.

With some screenings of this documentary, the 20 minutes or more of the Shea Stadium concert footage is added.